


Surprisingly High Quality Wi Fi

by purgtory (orphan_account)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Shopping Malls, and a bit of plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 14:50:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9496898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/purgtory
Summary: "I've been hiding in this kid's play tent on the far side of this store for two hours using the free wi fi, but you've just tried to get in too. Wait no, you're cute, you can stay but be quiet because I'm not sure that we're allowed to be here" AU and the drama that inevitably follows when it comes to Dean and Cas.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: small mention of sexual harassment and aggressive, horrible bad guy

It was on days like these that Castiel kind of wished the holidays weren’t quite so long. During term time, he spent almost all his time in the library, studying or reading. Keeping out of the house as long as possible. Living a quiet life at home was difficult with six siblings, two parents, four uncles, three aunts and ten cousins living on one block. Castiel was just grateful it wasn’t one house, usually.

He usually attempted to escape during the holidays as well. Unfortunately, the local library had just recently decided that staying open past 12pm was not worth its while. Thus, Castiel found himself standing outside the doors at ten minutes past, feeling rather indignant about being kicked out. The librarian knew exactly who he was, despite her age and distinct lack of marbles. She could have just let him stay, surely.

The only other place he could go was the mall. He supposed he could go to the small park a few blocks away from the library, but he was eager to avoid being outside. Some of his cousins had been given new bicycles a few days ago, so they were undoubtedly still patrolling the neighbourhood on them. And were they to run into him, they would of course drag him back home, on the implied instructions of his dear mother. So, the mall it was.

He walked as quickly as possible, sticking to busy roads where amateur cyclists wouldn’t brave the lunchtime traffic. An idea was forming in his mind, he just hoped the mall stores were as technically advanced as the ones in the city.

As he approached the mall, Castiel discovered that it had been a doubly good idea – he found himself greatly looking forward to the controlled temperature inside the mall. He could feel the blast of air conditioning from a few meters outside the doors. Walking inside was like walking into bliss. Or heaven, perhaps. He wouldn’t know.

Castiel took a little while to walk around at the casual pace of a person with not a lot to do. After two circuits of the mall, he had determined several things. One, that there were five stores that advertised free wi fi. Two, the generic homeware and clothes store looked to be the best place to take advantage of said wi fi. And three (unluckily for him), his mother had just come through an entry not too far from him.

It wasn’t like he was avoiding her per se. He was simply avoiding her pre-prepared lecture on how he should be sticking with his family making them proud, as opposed to…not doing that. He was really doing her voice a favour by preventing her from using it at a high volume.

Castiel quickly turned and ducked into the nearest shop. Too quickly, in fact. He found himself walking headlong into a person of some kind. Worried about his mother’s uncanny ability to spot disturbances of any kind, he mumbled an apology to the person he’d run into and stepped behind a rack of clothes. He gave it a few seconds before he peeked between a red shirt and a green sweater to check on his mother. In an unusual stroke of luck, she seemed unaware of his general presence. Castiel watched her stride towards the east end of the mall and disappear from view. He also caught sight of a very grumpy looking man in a suit brushing himself off. It was only as the man began to walk rather pompously to the opposite side of the mall that Castiel realised it was the man he had run into only a few seconds before.

Still, Castiel would take grumpy guy he just ran into over his mother almost any day. So he pretended to browse through the clothes for a minute before leaving and heading back to the generic homewares and clothes store.

Feeling certain his mother wouldn’t be seen dead in such a “nasty” place (her words, not his), he allowed himself to wander around. This was less for his own benefit and more to give the impression he wasn’t just there for the free wi fi.

After what he deemed an acceptable period of browsing, Castiel walked as inconspicuously as possible to a tucked-away corner of the store in which there were several shelves of last season’s stuffed animals, some boxes of miscellaneous stationery and an item which, right about now, looked like the perfect place to spend an afternoon.

A children’s play tent.

Had he come across it on a better day, Castiel would have thought it rather ghastly. It was made of bright purple and orange material that looked vaguely rubbery. Its entrance was not so much a door as a gap with a roll-downable sheet of fabric attached to the top. Whilst not overly small, it looked as though it could comfortably fit two or three small children. Hence, it would be positively spacious for one average sized Castiel.

He clambered in without too much difficulty. The eerie purple light inside the tent was comforting, in a surreal, dreamlike kind of way.

And better still, he had three bars.

Castiel spent well over two hours reading and surfing the internet from the dimmed screen of his phone, which he found immensely enjoyable. The temperature was just a little to the warm end of comfortable, and Castiel would have quite happily had a nap were he not slightly worried that doing so would be just the tiniest bit illegal. Or against store policy, at the very least.

After almost two and a half hours Castiel put his phone down and was again weighing up the pros and cons of sleeping when he heard a set of very fast paced footsteps approaching his hideout. To his dismay, they stopped right outside. Castiel prepared for the worst – a humiliating scene in which he was thrown out and banned from the store in front of his mother and got arrested.

What he was not expecting was for a boy about his age to crawl into the tent as though he, too, was hiding from someone.

The boy made it the entire way into the tent before realising that he was not the tent’s only occupant. The realisation momentarily transfigured him into a statue, his face frozen in an expression halfway between horror and fear. Castiel could sense his own face was similar, with the added bonus of “ohmygodheisreallyhotgoddammitwhyamisuchaloser.”

The boy recovered after a few seconds, his face morphing into politely surprised friendliness. He was easily one of the most attractive people Castiel had ever laid eyes upon. But it wasn’t just his features that were attractive, it was…well, him. The way his mouth was smiling as though it was about to smirk, but not in an unfriendly way. And his-

“Um, hi.”

Castiel got the distinct feeling that his eyes were bulging, then blinking, then staring blankly, and probably made him look very out of it. Then again, given how fast at least fifteen different voices in his head were shouting suggestions at him, he wasn’t really in a position to argue that he wasn’t out of it.

In some modern miracle of getting it together, Castiel managed to join his brain to his mouth. “Hello,” he said, hoping to come off as confused but not overly disappointed. Not at all disappointed, actually.

There was a long and awfully awkward pause, during which the boy grinned sheepishly, trying his hardest to apologise with a facial expression. “What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?”

Having now gained control back from his rampant brain, mostly, Castiel was not having as much difficulty with speech, or anything else for that matter. “Hiding, unfortunately,” he said, “I get the feeling you are doing the same?”

The boy’s mouth did extended into a smirk at that. It crossed Castiel’s mind that the boy was just being nice so that he could remain for a little while. But Castiel certainly wasn’t going to complain about spending an amount of time in a smallish space with him.

“Yeah, I kinda am,” said the boy. Then, as though he felt obligated to elaborate, he explained. “See, I was coming for the wi fi in here, ‘cause it’s really good, but then I kinda got spotted by the manager, who kind of doesn’t like me, and who I think might be looking for me now maybe.” He trailed off after that.

It was obvious that Castiel was going to have to tell the boy to get another hiding place, or remain here until the manager gave up looking for him and returned to business. And it would have to be a little longer, just to be sure. There was no choice really. It was the only decent thing to do.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kick you out and feed you to the wolf,” he whispered. The boy’s grin widened. He shifted so that he was sitting facing Castiel, cross-legged and with his head resting on both hands. “You can stay until he’s gone,” confirmed Castiel. “Besides, I’m kind of hiding as well. And I’d feel bad for condemning you.” Castiel felt himself rambling slightly. He hadn’t gone too weird though.

The whispering and close proximity with this total stranger shouldn’t have been as enjoyable as Castiel was finding it.

“Who’re you hiding from?” asked the boy, still with the slightest smile on his face. Eyes that Castiel had first thought were hazel turn out to be, upon closer inspection, green.

“The world.” Castiel wondered if that sounded pretentious, but he could never resist a tad of melodrama.

To his great relief, the boy didn’t seem to find it strange. He looked thoughtful, understanding. As if he were trying to say, “Me too.” Castiel was vaguely aware that his mother always told him he stared into people’s eyes for too long, that it was disconcerting. He was more aware of how interesting the boy’s green eyes were. And that in itself was weird as well.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps creeping down the aisle nearest them. Castiel had been to the mall enough to know that it was almost an hour until closing time, but almost everybody would have left by now. So in all likelihood it was the manager on the prowl.

Castiel started to get marginally worried. In hindsight, a large tent was quite possibly the most obvious hiding spot in the history of hiding spots. He told himself that at least getting caught hiding in a tent with a beautiful boy and getting banned from a store with good free wi fi wouldn’t be the worst thing to ever happen in his life.

Unless his mother was around.

The boy tensed as the footsteps came closer and closer and…stopped. Crap. They both held their breaths.

The owner of the footsteps sniffed, very audibly. It struck Castiel as distinctly deranged-evil-villain-like.

The following silence was punctuated only by the ringing of blood in his ears. It was starting to feel as though they were busted for sure when the miscellaneous beeps of a walkie talkie interrupted them.  

“Sorry, sir, but there’s this lady knocking over a bunch of stuff in aisle three. She seems kind of high. Would you mind…?” said a metallic voice, obviously emanating from the walkie talkie.

The person – a man – outside their tent sighed dramatically, clearly indicating that dealing with customers was far below him and he had much better things to do. “I’ll be right over.” The footsteps began to recede again, as did the mutterings about “goddamn morons” and “that stupid new kid.”

Both Castiel and the boy let out the breaths they’d been holding. The boy rubbed his face and shook his head a little. Castiel grinned, ecstatic about their great escape.

“That was close,” said the boy, unnecessarily. Castiel would have laughed if he wasn’t worried about being heard.

His brain was shouting at him, demanding he make some witty and very likeable comment about the whole situation. Given that very likeable was not exactly his speciality, he settled for sly. “You know…you should probably stay a little while longer. It’d be a real pity if you got caught after all the effort I’ve put in.”

The boy’s chuckle made Castiel wonder if perhaps he wasn’t so bad at likeable after all. “I’d better, hadn’t I?” The boy looked up through his eyelashes and Castiel felt fairly certain he was flirting now. “You’ve been awfully kind to me.”

Castiel had to mentally slap himself for wondering if the boy was about to offer some “token” of appreciation. That was quite enough of that.

“Why does the manager of this place hate you?” he asked, changing the subject. His voice was still lowered, though not quite a whisper.

“It’s a long story.”

“We’ve got time. Unless you don’t want to tell me? Which is fine, I mean-”

“Nah, I’ll tell you. So, I used to work here, right? I hated it, but I needed the money because…well, I just did. Anyway, the manager used to know my mom, which is probably how I got the job in the first place. But he’s a real dickhead, picked on all the staff in the store. He’d keep coming up to me talking about my mom, saying she would have done x or she’d have thought y. It’s was frickin annoying, but I dealt with it up until the day when I tripped over some stuff he’d left on the ground earlier and knocked over a shelf of glass jar type things. He was really mad, sad she’d be disappointed she had an idiot like me for a son.”

“What?!”

“Yup. Like I said, a real dickhead.”

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that what happened next is the reason he hates you?”

This was definitely the highest amount of easy familiarity he’d ever had with someone he’d only known about ten minutes. It was weird. But perhaps escaping the wrath of a complete dickhead wasn’t something people could do without becoming friends. Or friendly.

“Wow, how did you guess? I kinda punched him. Not exactly my proudest moment, but he deserved it. And he probably would’ve just fired me and let me live after that if I hadn’t…well, I kinda got everyone else on staff to quit. They didn’t need much persuasion, really. But he had no one for a day or two, had to get a whole new batch of staff. He tried to sue me, but it got thrown out. And, I mean, it was what he said that kind of got me started, but he was bullying everyone and he was…really horrible to some of the girls, if you get what I mean. So yeah, I just…yep.”

Castiel wasn’t sure if the point of telling the story had been to impress him, but if it had been, it worked. “That was…very heroic of you.”

The boy smirked. “Thanks,” he said.

They waited for ten more minutes, in relative silence. It was less awkward that silence usually is. Castiel tried to read a little more of his ebook, but soon found he had to read each sentence three times before he comprehended. He gave up after a few tries.

He realised that he still did not know what the boy’s name was. It seemed a little strange to just ask, though.

“By the way, I’m Castiel. Castiel Novak. ”

The boy grinned, again. “Dean Winchester.” He turned back to the sort-of doorway, peeking through to see if anyone was around. He turned back to Castiel, looking just the slightest bit sad. “It was nice to meet you, Castiel. And thanks for saving my ass.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad your ass is okay.” Stupid.

Dean grinned again, for seemingly the hundredth time. “See you around, Castiel.” With that, he ducked out of the tent and began speed-walking away.

“Goodbye, Dean,” Castiel mumbled, knowing full well that Dean wouldn’t hear him.

He waited a while before leaving the tent, patting its horrible, rubbery fabric goodbye and beginning to walk towards the exit. All was well, mostly. True, Castiel could feel the beginnings of a large crush forming, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. And-

“Hey! Kid! Yeah, you there!” It was the man in the suit from earlier – the one he’d bumped into. Castiel recognised the suit. Now that Castiel could see him without his vision obscured by clothes, he saw the man had a lanyard around his neck. And a walkie talkie on his belt…

Good thing Dean had left before him.

“Hey, kid, I’m talking to you? What are you, dumb or something?” Castiel looked at the man, who was approaching him and fast. He sputtered, trying to figure out what to say and what exactly he’d done. “Yeah, you. Get out of my store, punk. I don’t want weirdos like you lurking around, probably looking to steal my property. Go on, scram!” Castiel was pretty scared, truth be told. He could definitely picture this man taking a swing at Dean. He could picture this man taking a swing at him. It wasn’t a nice picture.

“Sir, I’m-I’m just walking…I haven’t done anything…” Castiel stammered, willing his brain to string together a much better sentence.

“Yeah, right. Well, walk someplace else. And watch where you’re going – don’t think I don’t remember you. Running into people willy nilly like some juvenile delinquent.” Castiel had now progressed from pretty scared to very scared, and would have been tempted to move had it not been for the fact that his legs were not working. And neither was his mouth. Or his brain, for that matter. He knew what he wanted to do – leave, or do a Dean and punch this guy – but it didn’t seem to be working.

“You heard me, boy! Get outta here or I’m gonna-”

“Well, hey Mister C! Long-time no talk.”

Dean Winchester was really something.

The manager, Mr C, whirled round in the most evil-villain-ish way Castiel had ever seen someone act in real life. Dean was standing there casually, arms crossed, cool as a cucumber. He leaned around to look at Castiel. “Hey Cas.”

“Hello Dean.” Castiel hoped that he had conveyed just how stupid he thought Dean was by turning up, as grateful as he was for it.

Mr C was rapidly turning a fairly horrid shade of crimson. “You!” he spat at Dean, almost snarling with rage. People in the vicinity were starting to notice the situation. Castiel just hoped they weren’t going to have to bear witness to anything. His and Dean’s murder, perhaps.

“You’ve got a real nerve showing up here,” Mr C snarled at Dean. “but I’m going to give you one chance to get out of here, before I make you. And take your pathetic, bumbling little boy toy with you.”

If Castiel had been in Dean’s position, he would have left quickly while he had the chance and avoid any conflict that may occur. He had met Dean less than half a day ago and he already knew that conflict was probably inevitable, whether Dean intended to cause it or not.

Dean walked in a wide semicircle around Mr C, over to Castiel’s side. They both backed away a step or two, like one would from a wild and very aggressive animal. “Ah, don’t worry Mr C, we were just leaving. Just wanted to stop by, you know?”

In hindsight, Castiel wished he had simply grabbed Dean’s arm and left the moment he turned up. Or even left with him, earlier. Or done anything to avoid what happened next.

The veins in the man’s neck looked fit to burst. His face was twitching slightly. Dean and Castiel backed away another few steps. They almost subconsciously joint hands, ready to make a run for it. Castiel prayed that Mr C had enough sense not to attack a fifteen year old boy in the middle of a semi-busy mall.

It turned out he did not.

The man lunged forward an aimed a punch right at Dean’s face. Dean dropped Castiel’s hand to balance himself as he dodged it. He was so busy looking out for the man’s right hand that he didn’t notice the left one swinging towards him. Castiel tried to warn him, but too late. It caught Dean squarely on the cheek.

He managed to stop himself from completely falling to the ground. Castiel rushed over to him, trying to drag him up and away. He saw at least two people calling the police in the corner of his eye.

Several people around them looked as though they were about to step in. Another man, tall and burly, stepped between Dean and Mr C. “Look, pal, I don’t know what this kid’s done to you in the past, but he hasn’t done anything today and you shouldn’t be punching him no matter what he’s done. It’s time to back off now.”

Mr C shoved him aside, glaring at the man. “You don’t know what this little git’s done to me.” Without thinking, Castiel stepped in front of Dean.

 _This is a lot more drama than I had planned for this afternoon_ , Castiel thought.

“He’s just a kid, pal,” said the man, still trying to keep the peace. It gave Castiel the chance to look around and see…someone he’d never, in his wildest dreams, ever thought he would be glad to see storming towards them.

His mother.

Dean was wiping at the blood trickling from nose and split lip, furiously blinking away tears. He was conscious at least, so that was something.

Everything was fitting into place. Castiel just had to stand between Dean and Mr C until his mother arrived, because the one thing his mother could consistently be relied upon to do, other than yell at him, was yell at people for him.

Mr C was breathing heavily. He took a step towards Castiel. His mother was at the entrance to the store now. Mr C took another shaky step. His mother opened her mouth.

“Castiel! What’s going on here?” she demanded. The few people around them parted to let her through.

Castiel prepared for an Oscar-worthy performance.

“Mom! Thank god you’re here. Dean and I were just walking around and this guy came up to us – he was saying all this stuff, mom, and he punched Dean! All these people saw it.” He threw his arms around his mother. “We didn’t do anything Mom, I promise.”

Perhaps he was milking it a little, but his mother certainly seemed to believe him. In a moment of uncharacteristic kindness, she said, “It’s okay honey, I believe you. I saw a bit of it. How about you and your friend wait outside for a moment?”

Castiel smiled weakly. “Yeah, okay.” He went over to Dean and supported him as they began to walk away.

“Dude, is that your mom?” Dean asked quietly, his breath tickling Castiel’s ear.

“Yes. We’re walking away quickly so as not to get an earful of her dulcet tones,” he replied.

“That was…really smart, Cas. Setting your mom on him.”

“Thanks.”

“Is it okay if I call you Cas?”

“Yes, of course it is.” They took a moment to collapse onto a sofa in the middle of the walkway. Dean’s nose was still bleeding, though not quite as much. “Thank you, Dean. For stopping him. Even if it was incredibly stupid.”

“Yeah, well, you save my ass, I save yours. We’re even now.”

“Even?!” The idea was plainly ridiculous. Dean took a punch for him – he just shared a tent for, like, twenty minutes. “There’s no way we’re even, Dean. I barely did anything and you took a beating for me. How is that even?” A lady with a shopping cart gave him a funny look as she walked past.

“I’m fine, Cas. Honestly.”

“If you’re sure.”

Dean nudged him lightly in the ribs. “What is…your favourite color?”

Castiel was sure he’d heard wrong. “What?”

“What’s your favourite color?” Dean repeated.

“Um…yellow,” he said. It was the strangest thing, to be sitting here with this boy he hardly knew, talking about his favourite colour of all things. Nice, though. “What’s yours?”

Dean looked right into eyes, his expression saying ‘isn’t it obvious?’ It wasn’t. Dean was a mystery. “Blue. I’m really into the color blue right now.”

Castiel’s brain was working overtime today. _Was that? Yes, I think it was. But maybe? No. It was. Or was it?_

He was prevented from saying anything by the emergence of his mother from the store. Somehow, he didn’t think he was going to be in trouble. She looked nicer than usual. Castiel had a sudden surge of appreciation for the fact that she really did love him. She just didn’t know how to, perhaps. She was used to loud, exuberant children, after all.

“It’s okay, boys. He’s just a horrible man. You won’t be getting any more trouble from him, I hope. It’s a good thing I got talking to Helen or I wouldn’t have even been here this late. Are you okay, Dean? It was Dean, wasn’t it? Do you need a hospital?”

Dean looked overwhelmed at the questions. “Um, yeah, I’m Dean. But I’m fine, thanks Mrs Novak.”

“No worries, honey. Castiel?” Castiel looked up at her, worried again. “Hey, no need to look so scared. I just wanted to say…I’m proud of you, Castiel. For standing up for your friend. And I’m glad you’re getting out and socialising a little, not just sitting in that library all day.”

Ignoring the jab at his beloved library, Castiel replied, “Thanks, Mom.”

She smiled. “I suppose you two are still ‘hanging out’ or whatever it is kids do these days. I won’t interrupt you any longer. Just don’t get into any more fights, okay boys?”

They both grinned sheepishly. “We won’t,” they said in unison.

“Okay, then. I’ll be off. And Castiel?”

“Yes Mom?”

“Don’t get home too late.”

“I won’t.”

With that, she began walking back up through the mall. The few people walking around her sprang out of her way.

“Dude. Your mom is…something.”

“Yes, she is.” Castiel looked over at Dean, who was, yet again, grinning. It was quite beautiful. “Dean?”

“Yeah?”

“Doyouwanttocomegetadrinkwithmeorsomething?”

“What?” Judging by Dean’s reaction, Castiel hadn’t quite mastered the art of coherent speech around pretty boys just yet.

“Do you want to, maybe, come and get a drink with me? Now? Or something? Not alcohol, just like-”

“Yes.” Dean nodded, emphasising his response. “You know, there’s a really nice café up the other end. Open until pretty late, usually.”

Castiel hadn’t really thought about what he would do if Dean said yes. “That sounds…wonderful.”

“Awesome. Shall we?”

Night had well and truly fallen by the time the left, exhausted but very happy. Also holding hands, which was just a bonus.

Luck was a truly curious thing. Castiel had already had a fair share of bad and good luck that day. Though perhaps it was more good luck than bad. In Castiel’s opinion, it usually ended up balancing itself out. So, naturally, a group of Novak cousins had to whoosh past as he and Dean were walking.

They whistled and jeered, trying to get a raise out of him. “How much did you pay him, Cassie?” “Who’s this, Cassie?” “Aww, ickle babykins has got himself a boyfriend!”

Castiel rolled his eyes. He leaned over to whisper in Dean’s ear. “Would you mind doing me a favour?”

“Anything.”

“Kiss me. That’ll show them.”

“Well, I mean, if you insist I guess I-”

 _I guess I’ll have to do it myself, then_.

**Author's Note:**

> so, thoughts? i set out to write a lil fluffy thing and this just...happened. Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
